# 12 The Pawnbroker by David Thurlo Middle East Marine combat vet Charlie Henry leaves the Corps and buys a pawnshop near his native Navajo reservation in New Mexico. But the previous owner was more than dishonest, and his lies and treacheries and criminal acts embroil Charlie in more action that he'd prefer. Book 1 of a series.
I enjoy reading about Navajo culture, and the Thurlos did a terrific job portraying the stresses of reservation life and keeping the peace with the white man's law. Aimee Thurlo passed away in 2014, but she and her husband wrote together for forty years. You can see not only their love of the Navajo people in their prose, their love for each other comes through, too. I can't tell who wrote what part. Thumbs up for any of their work.
# 13 Grave Consequences by David Thurlo Book 2 of the Charlie Henry series. More murder, more mayhem, more interesting but flawed characters trying to recover from various misfortunes and bad decisions, and Charlie is smack in the middle of it again.
# 14 Viper by Lt. Col. (ret.) Dan Hampton A first-person account of training to fight an F-16 Viper (also called Falcon). Col. Hampton flew over 200 combat missions in the two Gulf wars and was credited with destroying more SAM (surface-to-air) missile sites than any other pilot in the theater. A gripping read which includes a (very necessary) glossary - I didn't know what it meant to "zipper" the radio microphone. (It means to click it rapidly for a second or two to acknowledge a transmission.) Not for the faint of heart, I'm afraid.
# 15 Beyond Valor by Jon Erwin and William Doyle The true story of a true hero. Sergeant Red Erwin picked up a malfunctioning magnesium flare in the control room of his B-29 Bomber in early 1945 and dropped it out of the plane through a window. Had he not done so, the flare would have detonated the nine-ton bomb load in the belly of the bomber. The heat from the flare burned off much of his skin, and doctors did not believe he would survive. The Army even flew his bride of seven weeks (from wedding to deployment) to Hawaii to say goodbye. He fooled them all and lived for more than half a century. His heroic act saved his airplane, his crewmates, the mission, the lives of many of the crews of the planes with him. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery.
